--Having worked at a VA hospital the last 18 yrs I have witnessed a major change in how the VA operates.Just one example is a state of the art computer system which blew the the mind of our last Joint commission survey team.In addition there are constant ongoing performance improvement initiatives.Still there are problems(including the one pointed out by Spraig re approval of sevice connection for military related health problems) but the system has definetly improved.In addition the VA deliveries health care at a lower cost.It does this in different ways including buying large amounts of medications and getting significantly lowerer proces as a result.Also frankly Drs are paid salaries which are typically lower than they would be earning in the private sector.OTOH they get 6 wks off+10 national holidays(or a substitute)each yr.They don't have any expenses and don't pay for malpractice.One down side has been alot of foriegn drs who work in the VA which creates problems with communicating with pts.However,alot of these mds are competent and frequently board certified..AS far the VA asking that it's budget being doubled I find that extremely unlikely given that the Sec of the VA was appointed by G.H Bush who would never approve such a large increase.Kevin
- In [email protected], "authfriend" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > --- In [email protected], Robert Gimbel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > I'm not sure how efficient the V.A. is, although I heard recently, > that they, are running out of money quickly, and are asking for a > doubling of thier budget; > > This seems to be due to two reason, > > 1. the aging of the previous vets needing service; > > 2. The thousands of wounded vets from the current war, who will > need much in the way of both physical, emotional, mental, as well as > spiritual rehabilitation, for many years to come... > > The Republicans have been seriously underfunding > the VA. And the administration wildly underestimated > the number of injured vets returning from Iraq who > were going to require medical care. > > <snip> > > > Aside from the fact that the administration and > > > Congress have refused to fund it adequately, the > > > Veterans Administration shows that government-run > > > health care *can* function well in this country. > > > [Lawson wrote:] > > You've got to be kidding. The VA is incredibly inefficient. > > Not so. See this post on the Washington > Monthly "Political Animal" blog: > > http://tinyurl.com/7x5px > > It discusses a much longer report that > appeared in the regular Washington Monthly, > available here: > > http://tinyurl.com/6rasu To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
